Speaking of Israel...

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

How is Britain's legacy more bearable than the U.S? More people have directly died from British policies than U.S. policies by an order of magnitude.

Palestine is a war zone due to the British.
Large parts of Africa are a war zone due to the British and the rest is slowly improving due to Chinese investment.
India/Pakistan is an ongoing Cold War due to the British.

You can bring up dismantling slavery peacefully vs the US bloodshed all you want, but its spin at its best, ignorance at its worst. The U.K. industrialized first and it industrialized quick. You no longer needed slavery and thus you could easily eliminate it once you no longer depended on it. The U.S did not reach U.K. levels of industrialization until another 20 years after the Civil War.

Don't get me wrong, I still love you guys more than anyone.

We invented your democracy - you're welcome.

Industrialisation also had no impact on the slave trade because slaves were only used in the colonies, which did not industrialise until much later.

Palastine is actually at least as much YOUR fault because the US funded the Jewish terrorists who forced out the British forces and then started a war against the Arabs.

Africa? Please, don't even start, the parts of Africa that really stink now were run by Belgium, we ran SA and Kenya as well as Zimbabwe - you guys invented Liberia because you hated black people.

India and Pakistan? The Pakistani's refused to live in a country not run by Muslims (they only accepted a multi-religious India under the British jackboot).

Internal British Government papers from the 20's predicted Indian Independence around 1960, as it was thought we would need 40 years to bed-in democracy, so we got started, created the Indian Parliament... then along came Ghandi to accelerate the timetable and it all went wrong.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

We invented your democracy - you're welcome...

Not completely, but certainly the idea that a public forum for debate was good and that a bicameral legislature was useful for checks and balances were stolen from your "Mother of Parliaments." A lot of the rest was cribbed from Republican Rome with a dash of romanticized ancient Greece. Jemmy loved the classics.

We pretty much owe you the entirety of our system of jurisprudence though. I am happy however, that I don't have to see our Personal Injury Lawyers wearing perukes in their advertisements. Morgan & Morgan and Pendas ads are bad enough as things stand.

All-in-all, a "thanks" is appropriate.

There ARE times I wish we had imported the Questions session your Commons uses. All for holding the Executives feet to the metaphorical fire a bit. Of course, you do have those expensive but smoothly decorative royals that can handle some of the silly ceremonial duties that choke our President's schedule -- gives the PM a few hours a week where she/he can be grilled.

[Papewaio]

It's not too late to become a Commonwealth country. Considering that the rest of the five eye nations are...

[Noncommunist]

We invented your democracy - you're welcome.

Industrialisation also had no impact on the slave trade because slaves were only used in the colonies, which did not industrialise until much later.

Palastine is actually at least as much YOUR fault because the US funded the Jewish terrorists who forced out the British forces and then started a war against the Arabs.

Africa? Please, don't even start, the parts of Africa that really stink now were run by Belgium, we ran SA and Kenya as well as Zimbabwe - you guys invented Liberia because you hated black people.

India and Pakistan? The Pakistani's refused to live in a country not run by Muslims (they only accepted a multi-religious India under the British jackboot).

Internal British Government papers from the 20's predicted Indian Independence around 1960, as it was thought we would need 40 years to bed-in democracy, so we got started, created the Indian Parliament... then along came Ghandi to accelerate the timetable and it all went wrong.

But we made it actually include people that weren't the 1%. Sure, it took a while to include just about everybody but it was a good bit faster than over on that side of the pond.

Once industrialization hit, the most powerful people weren't the slave owners and they could actually listen to their conscience on that issue instead of stuffing their ears with money.

We may have done that but we didn't set up the entire situation by conquering some large chunk of the Middle East.

Mandela and Klerk saved South Africa from being a repeat of Liberia/preview of Zimbabwe, not some magic British voodoo influence.

They managed to live okay when they were ruled by the Sikhs. And when they were running the show under the Mughals, they did show a fair bit of religious tolerance.